xelatex does not find some Hoefler Text ligatures that it used to find

Question

I just updated to MacTex 2020, and I get the following error, on a document that was compiling fine yesterday, and without having made any change to the document.

I compile with:

xelatex test.tex

and get:

This is XeTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-0.999992 (TeX Live 2020) (preloaded format=xelatex)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
(./test2.tex
LaTeX2e <2020-02-02> patch level 5
L3 programming layer <2020-03-06>
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/koma-script/scrartcl.cls
Document Class: scrartcl 2020/01/24 v3.29 KOMA-Script document class (article)
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/koma-script/scrkbase.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/koma-script/scrbase.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/keyval.sty)
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/koma-script/scrlfile.sty)))
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/koma-script/tocbasic.sty)
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/koma-script/scrsize10pt.clo)
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/koma-script/typearea.sty))
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/fontspec/fontspec.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/l3packages/xparse/xparse.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/l3kernel/expl3.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/l3backend/l3backend-xdvipdfmx.def
))) (/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/fontspec/fontspec-xetex.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/fontenc.sty)
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/fontspec/fontspec.cfg)))
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/xelatex/xltxtra/xltxtra.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/generic/iftex/ifluatex.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/generic/iftex/iftex.sty))
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/generic/iftex/ifxetex.sty)
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/realscripts/realscripts.sty)
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/metalogo/metalogo.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/graphicx.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/graphics.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/trig.sty)
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics-cfg/graphics.cfg)
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics-def/xetex.def)))))

Package fontspec Warning: AAT feature
(fontspec)                'Ligatures=Common,Rare,Historic,Contextual' (1,2)
(fontspec)                not available in font 'Hoefler Text'.


Package fontspec Warning: AAT feature
(fontspec)                'Ligatures=Common,Rare,Historic,Contextual' (1,4)
(fontspec)                not available in font 'Hoefler Text'.


! LaTeX3 Error: Key 'fontspec-aat/Ligatures' accepts only a fixed set of
(LaTeX3)        choices.

For immediate help type H <return>.
 ...

l.7

?

where test.tex is:

\documentclass[10pt,a4paper]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{fontspec, xltxtra}
\setmainfont[Mapping=tex-text, ItalicFeatures={Alternate = 0}, 
Ligatures={Common,Rare,Historic,Contextual},Contextuals=Inner,Alternate=1]{Hoefler Text}

\begin{document}
ff fi ffi ct st
\end{document}

What should I do to fix this?

Addendum Adding Renderer=OpenType removes the error messages when compiling but the ct and st ligatures are lost.

Addendum 2 The .tex files on this (old) page don't compile anymore either, and when using Renderer=OpenType, do not show the ligatures and swashes it used to. So, something has been lost/is not backward compatible, apparently.

Addendum 3 This related post doesn't seem to help either.

Answer 1

I don't think the AAT renderer works properly any more with XeTeX and/or the old AAT fonts distributed in macOS are no longer functional like they used to be.

On top of that I suspect Hoefler Text is not set up with proper OpenType font tables (it's not the same version as what you would buy from Hoefler).

Without being definitive about it, I think the best option is to look for a new font…